Page 20 of Spark

“Not yet, babe,” Savage says. “Go back to sleep. Ruby called an emergency band meeting for reasons yet unknown. All we know is it’s because of something Kai did.”

“Sorry to wake you,” I say. “Your room is the only one big enough for all of us to sit and talk.”

Laila yawns and flops onto her husband’s lap. “Is it okay if I stay? This sounds juicy.”

“I’d love for you to stay. When a certain lying sack of shit tries to gaslight me about his slander of me, I’m sure I’ll appreciate having another woman here for support.” I glare at Kai for emphasis, and he rolls his eyes.

“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” Kai says.

“I’m talking about the bald-faced lies you told Kendrick about what happened between you and me at my twentieth birthday party.”

Everyone except Kendrick, who already knows the purpose of this meeting, looks wide-eyed and highly intrigued.

“Hello?” I shout at Kai. “What about that, Kai? Do you deny lying about that to Kendrick or not?”

“You’d better start talking,” Titus says to Kai. “What really happened, and what did yousayhappened?”

When Kai says nothing, I address the group with my arms crossed over my chest. “Kai hit on me at my birthday party. That’s what happened. And then he went and told Kendrickthe exact opposite happened—thatIhit onhim.” I scoff. “As if.”

“As if?” Kai says indignantly, speaking for the first time during this inquisition. “Careful, Ruby. You know there’s more to this story than what happened at your birthday party. Honestly, given what happened years before that, I’m shocked you’re bringing this up with the whole band rather than coming to talk to me about it in private. That would have saved you a whole lot of embarrassment.”

“I have nothing to feel embarrassed about! I was sixteen and stupid, and I barely knew you. What was yourexcuse, all those years later?”

Kai shoots daggers at his brother. “I told you that stuff in confidence, KC. What the fuck?”

“This isn’t Kendrick’s fault,” I yell, as Kendrick mumbles something in defense of himself. “It’s yours and nobody else’s.”

“You tried to fuck my sister?” Titus booms. “Even though you’ve always said she’s like a sister to you?” He looks at Savage and Kendrick. “He’s always said that, right?”

Kendrick and Savage confirm that’s true.

“Has everybodytried to fuck my sister behind my back, or just Kai?”

“Just Kai,” Savage says with a yawn.

“Fucking hell, Kai,” Titus says, his face the color of a beet.

“Would you calm the fuck down?” Kai says, leaning back into his armchair. “This is being blown way out of proportion. I promise you, when you hear the full context ofwhyI did what I did?—”

“So you don’t deny it, then?” I interject. “You don’t deny hitting on me, and then turning around and telling Kendrick the exact opposite story?”

“I don’t deny it, no. But context is everything.”

“Liar!”

“Look, I had to tell Kendrick something, okay? When he came back from school, he was totally depressed and not himself. We all saw it. He wasn’t good. And he was all over me about the band feeling weird. The vibe being off. Especially between you and me. He wouldn’t let it go. But he was feeling so down in the dumps, I didn’t feel like I could pile on and tell him the truth. So, I switched things around to make it go down a bit easier for him.”

“What are you talking about?” Kendrick asks, taking the words right out of my mouth.

Kai exhales. “You don’t know this, Ruby, but the three of us agreed, from day one, that you were off-limits, okay? Our honorary sister. So, I didn’t want Kendrick to be pissed at me for being a hypocrite and breaking that longstanding agreement.”

It’s a lightbulb moment for me.

Is that the reason Kendrick’s never once shown romantic interest in me? Or would he have ignored that stupid agreement, regardless, if he’d been genuinely interested? I mean, Savage has never shown interest in me, either, and that boy definitely would have broken their agreement if that’s what he’d wanted to do.

“So, let me get this straight,” I say to Kai. “You were scared of your brother finding out you’re a hypocrite, by your own admission, so you opted to tell a horrendous lie about me hitting on you, instead?”

Kai rolls his eyes. “I told a little white lie. One that was actually based in reality, if you think about it.”

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